Dissorophoidea

Kamakops

• North America
• Europe
• South Africa

The Dissorophoidea are an extinct group of terrestrial vertebrates from the group of Temnospondyli. They were small to medium sized animals that have played about 80 million years, a significant role in the vertebrate community. There were several Untertaxa, which included both aquatic as well as terrestrial forms. The group is systematically important because in it the ancestors of modern amphibians are some scientists.

Micromelerpetontidae and Branchiosauridae

The Dissorophoidea earliest occurring are the Micromelerpetontidae and pädomorphischen Branchiosauridae. Their fossils have been found in freshwater deposits from the Pennsylvanian before 318-299 million years ago in the Midwestern United States and the Czech Republic.

Dissorophoidae

The Dissorophoidae lived in the Permian and were probably exclusively terrestrial. They were small to medium-sized bulky built animals with short skulls, big eyes and middle ears. Of all the other Dissorophoidea they differed by a bony carapace.

Trematopidae

The Trematopidae appeared in the late Pennsylvanian and survived until the Early Permian. As the Dissorophoidae they are a living primarily on land group. They had typical keyhole- shaped extended backwards nostrils and large canine teeth on the maxilla ( upper jaw bone one ).

Amphibamidae

The Amphibamidae lived from the late Pennsylvanian to early Triassic, there were thus about 60 million years and were the longest living species of the Dissorophoidea. They were small animals, as evidenced by the ossification of the limbs, lived primarily in rural areas. Their larvae live in water, have external gills and resembled the Branchiosauridae. This group is also assigned Gerobatrachus hottoni, a small, only eleven inches long Temnospondyle, which was first described in 2008 and united the common characteristics of frogs and toads and salamanders in himself, so that he could closely related to the common ancestor of both taxa.

System

Within the Temnospondyli include Dissorophoidea to Euskelia and are the sister group of the Eryopidae.

Probably the group has grown from a small Eryopsartigen ancestors. Of their five families Trematopidae and Dissorophidae be seen rather in a basal position, while Branchiosauridae, Amphibamidae, and the Lissamphibia form ( the extant amphibians) the crown group.